Setting Global Standards [Hardcover]

S. Prakash Sethi (Author), S. Prakash (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 2002

Learn how large corporations can make real improvements in their standard business practices without jeopardizing their competitiveness in the global marketplace. S. Prakash Sethi, a preeminent business scholar and researcher on the activities of multinational corporations and global business issues, outlines a number of highly effective approaches by which corporate leaders can improve their credibility and ensure the protection of the human and civil rights of their workers across the globe.

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Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Global trade liberalization has been an economic windfall for multinational corporations that have seized extraordinary power as developing countries compete with each other to lure them with cheap labor and resources. But with deregulation and open trade policies comes the specter of corporate abuses of labor, environmental, and human rights standards.

Public trust in business, especially large corporations, has never been lower. Increased scrutiny–by rigorous nongovernmental organizations and activist groups, consumers and investors, as well as the media–means that multinationals can’t pretend to operate in a vacuum. The appearance of impropriety can be just as damaging as impropriety itself, and corporate efforts to scrub a deteriorating public image are generally met with scorn and branded as transparent attempts to deflect bad publicity. In this environment of increasing public discontent, consumer backlash against corporations is becoming a primary concern of corporate leaders around the world.

Setting Global Standards shows why multinational corporations can no longer base decisions solely on poorer countries’ low to nonexistent legal standards designed to protect working conditions and the environment, standards that are invariably violated both by the local companies and by the multinationals that buy their products. Because these corporate behemoths have the bargaining leverage to buy only the products that meet the standards acceptable to Western consumers in their home markets, they must be held equally responsible for their impact on the conditions of workers and the environment. Otherwise, major international corporate brands face the grim prospect of public boycotts and protests, resulting in loss of trust and inviting further governmental regulation and censure. Savvy businesspeople are recognizing that what’s technically legal may be neither desirable nor ethical, and that today’s empowered and intelligent consumers and investors are more capable than ever of punishing corporations for real or perceived wrongs.

This book demonstrates how large corporations can make real improvements in their standard business practices without jeopardizing their competitiveness in the global marketplace. S. Prakash Sethi, a preeminent business scholar and researcher on the activities of multinational corporations and global business issues, outlines a number of highly effective approaches by which corporate leaders can improve their credibility and ensure the protection of the human and civil rights of their workers across the globe.

Corporate leaders know that the best way to deflect criticism is to do things the right way from the start. That’s often easier said than done in today’s massive corporate bureaucratic structures, which become insular and self-serving and lose sight of the fact that in the last analysis they cannot survive if they lose their public franchise. Rather than spend money on expensive public relations campaigns that rarely fool today’s cynical, savvy consumer, the modern corporation can and must become a better world citizen. Setting Global Standards shows them the way.

From the Back Cover

Praise for SETTING GLOBAL STANDARDS

"While American investors, legislators, and corporations are mired in accounting fraud and other signs of eroding ethics, another important corporate responsibility issue is looming large. The role of manufacturing and extractive multinational corporations in less developed countries is under due scrutiny. Are they treating workers fairly and safely, and protecting human rights and dignities? Are they protecting the environment as they would have to in their home countries? These are the important issues that Dr. Sethi addresses in this provocative and stimulating book. Not everyone will like his ‘no-holds-barred’ approach, but no one should go away unmoved by his perceptive analyses."
–Dr. David Lowry, Vice President, Social and Community Affairs and Human Rights Compliance Officer, Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold, Inc.

"Sethi’s hard-hitting analysis demonstrates that sweatshops and human rights abuses are not an inevitable price of economic growth in poorer countries or of profits for transnational corporations. Instead, they destroy democratic values and harm free enterprise. Multinational corporations cannot earn public trust without comprehensive independent external monitoring and compliance verification of voluntary codes of conduct, as well as public disclosure of their findings."
–Timothy Smith, President, Social Investment Forum and former executive director, Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR)

"Dr. Sethi’s expertise has been a guiding force in the development of Mattel’s Global Manufacturing Principles, as well as the transparent mechanism to publicly communicate both our successes and challenges. I hope this book will encourage others to push the envelope in the pursuit of doing what is right in business."
–Robert A. Eckert, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mattel, Inc.

"Many other books express ‘righteous anger’ about the activities of multinational corporations in developing countries and typically dwell on egregious examples and give little attention to business considerations and realistic possibilities for improvement. By contrast, Sethi’s work is based on long familiarity with the operations of many companies in many countries, and clearly recognizes the role and contribution of industrialization to economic development. Rather than solely criticizing these policies, Sethi explores the opportunities for improvement through voluntary efforts by firms and industries. Global Standards is an invaluable compilation of experience, analysis, and proposals for improvement by a recognized expert who is both critical and optimistic."
–Lee Preston, Professor Emeritus
Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1st edition (August 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471414557
• ISBN-13: 978-0471414551
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,687,001 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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